Getting Over It

 Some time ago, I suffered a loss. I am almost over it, but there are things that linger in the background that ever so often pinch a nerve.

Entertainment Weekly ran out before my subscription did. 

This blow to the contours of my lifestyle has almost been completely absorbed by means of a good wi-fi connection, but as the son of a printing salesman I feel like the loss of physical media is a blow against the way of life I once enjoyed. The ritual of perusing a magazine from cover to cover over the course of a week was one that marked the passage of time for me. After they fired the entire editorial staff and turned exclusively to freelancers submitting their work through an online portal, I continued to plug away, wincing slightly at the decline in journalistic standards. But this was Entertainment Weekly, after all. Not the Wall Street Journal. I wasn't looking for insights of any particular stripe. 

Then they, the powers that be, suddenly switched their circulation from weekly to monthly. And they extended my subscription by a multiple of four because of it. This meant I needed to find other ways to fill up those other three weeks' breakfast routine. 

And then they were gone. The powers that be decided to send me People magazine instead. This made me appreciate the journalistic integrity of those lame freelancers, but it was not any sort of substitute for the entertainment I was receiving weekly. After a brutal series of on-hold experiences on hold, I finally cancelled my subscription. 

I was forced to relive all this pain and suffering as I learned about the passing of Sports Illustrated. A recent "mishandled payment" between one corporate beast and another. The result was cutting loose the entire editorial staff. At that moment, the sports authority for nearly seventy years ceased to exist. Not that the world at large noticed much. There was a website that anyone who really needed something called Sports Illustrated could turn to. Who needs to sully themselves with all those trips to the mailbox and the attendant need to store/recycle back issues? This would be an environmental win if nothing else. And all those accusations of articles written by machines could just be ignored. And when you get right down to it, after you know the scores, who really needs their opinions adjusted about sports?

Still, I couldn't help but feel for those whose breakfast tables were suddenly left as empty as my own, all those years ago. Clicking on your laptop and scrolling through a website is a very different experience from the non-backlit casual turning of pages. Pages carefully written, photographed and printed, mailed directly to you each week. 

I don't know if I'll ever really be over it.